CHAPTER 1 — THE TREE THAT WASN'T EMPTY
The chainsaw screamed one last time.
With a thunderous crack that echoed through the valley, the ancient oak slowly leaned before crashing into the forest floor.
The impact shook the ground so violently that birds exploded from nearby trees in panicked clouds.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Nearly two centuries old, the giant had finally fallen.
The crew wiped sweat from their faces.
"That's one monster finished," foreman Jack Miller muttered.
The tree had become a danger to everyone.
It was hollow inside.
Dead for years.
Huge branches had already crashed onto the nearby highway during storms.
Experts warned it could collapse at any moment.
Removing it had taken weeks of planning.
Everything seemed routine.
Until five minutes later.
The workers began cutting the trunk into transportable sections.
Logs rolled away one after another.
Then Mark—the youngest worker—placed his chainsaw against the thickest part of the trunk.
The blade barely touched the wood before something flashed inside.
He stopped immediately.
"What the..."
He leaned closer.
Inside the hollow center...
Something white.
Perfectly white.
Not fungus.
Not roots.
Not stone.
It looked...
Human.
Mark stumbled backward.
"GUYS!"
Everyone rushed over.
The opening in the trunk revealed what looked disturbingly like a human rib cage embedded inside the wood.
Nobody spoke.
One worker crossed himself.
Another whispered,
"Please tell me that's fake..."
Jack grabbed a flashlight.
The beam pierced the darkness.
The skeleton wasn't lying inside.
It was growing THROUGH the tree.
Roots had wrapped around the bones.
Branches had pierced between ribs.
The skull stared outward through a crack in the trunk.
Its empty eye sockets looked almost alive.
Someone called 911.
Within forty minutes, police surrounded the entire logging site.
The medical examiner carefully examined the remains.
Then his expression changed.
"This..."
He swallowed.
"This tree didn't grow around a dead body."
Everyone stared.
"What do you mean?"
The examiner slowly looked up.
"The person was alive..."
"...when the tree began swallowing them."
Silence.
Even the wind seemed to stop.
No one noticed the strange carving near the roots.
A symbol almost completely hidden beneath centuries of bark.
Until one old ranger suddenly turned pale.
"I've seen that mark before..."
May you like
"And if I'm right..."
"We should leave this forest immediately."
